COUNCIL OF WOMEN.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIII, Issue 14363, 1 December 1910, Page 5

COUNCIL OF WOMEN.

•A. GROWUNG ■ MOVEMENT. So often the question is asked, "What is the International Council of Women, and what is its mission;-'" (writes the London correspondent or the Sydney Daily Telegraph.; Anyone interested in women's activity in publ.c life will tell you that the council includes 22 national councils, with a total membership of 10/000,000, spread ■ throughout practically every country in the world; that its ftiriaation in 1888 was due to a band of earnest American women, who ektted Mis Fwtoett as first president, and ihat Jie object is to advams, the social, ami, moral, and rehgioiia irelfarc- of irtaen. Those bald facia, io»ever, do cot adequately represent -*iie aims and achievements of this great universal surpement A. record of the council's work is now supplied in concrete form by the Countess of Aberdeen, the president of the international -Council, for the quin. quennial period 1304-ISO9, and who has been re-elected for 1310-1914. One of the International Council's most important Bections is that which deals with education, and in connection with winch a system of educational bureaux has been formed. There is in no country an adequate social service for taking young women when they leave school and finding them employment besides arranging for them to continue their studies along specialised lines. «ut the International Council of Wo men intend henceforth to take a large share m educational matters for the promotion of special objects within each country such as the scientific and practical teaching of domestic subjects to girls of all classes, and the foundation of a national svstem of educational information and employment bureaux under public authority and connected with the schools. In public health matters, again, there are fields m which the value of women's co-ope. ration cannot be over estimated The Countess of Aberdeen holds that it is tho duty of women to further and guide the efforts to combat tuberculosis and infant mortality to safeguard the iiealth of school children; to improve the health of women industrial workers, as well as the health of the home. the trafhc in .women is a question nbich concerns all women profoundly, and the International Council are labouring unceasingly to get laws intro. duced m every country for the suppression of this nefarious trade, as well as tor the recognition of an equal moral standrd for both sexes In ' advancing the movement towards international peace and arbitration the council has performed yeoman service . and has secured and supported suitable women candidates for positions on those public bodies where membership is open to women.